Commander Buckaroo: To be continued
by agent cormac
Summary: Kelly sets out to find out what has upset Grunt. What do the words "To be continued" have to do with it?


The sound from the port cargo bay was more then enough to put the most hardened of soldiers to flight. For Kelly it was taking every ounce of will power that she had not to disappear back to the safety of CIC. The horrible noise stopped, taking this as her cue, Kelly opened the door.

"Grunt? You okay? You're not feeling sick or anything, are you?" she asked. From her vantage point at the door it was hard to make out the young krogan. He appeared to be crouched over, looking at something. Hesitantly, she took a few steps into the room, trying to see past his bulk.

There was an indistinct voice. What ever it said it triggered another round of the krogan's wailing, causing Kelly to jump and skedaddle back to the door. The waling didn't stop but as Grunt made no move towards her Kelly advanced.

"Grunt? What's wrong?" She'd managed to get close enough to see that Grunt was watching something on his Omni-tool, though it was ending.

"Grunt?" Grunt finally heard her and turned.

"Chambers"

"What's wrong? Did the show you were watching frighten you or make you sad?" Kelly didn't think anything would but she was lost for any other explanation. Krogan where never easy to read but Kelly was sure that the look Grunt gave her was less then complementary, to say the least.

"I am pure krogan. I killed a thresher maw. No mere image could frighten me" contempt colored his voice.

"Well, good. Then why the wailing?"

Grunt dipped his head, a sign of discomfort. "They said that I have to wait another week. That it was a cliffhanger. I don't want to have to wait!" he sobbed.

Kelly removed her hands from over ears and shook her head in vain effort to get rid of the ringing. "Can I see what it is, Grunt?"

He nodded, and held up his Omni-tool. On it a bright, heavily detailed cartoon was playing, showing what looked to be clockwork geth being blasted by a human in blue glowing armor, an asari maiden in commando leathers and an overcoat and a hulking, scarred krogan who was causing the clockwork geth to explode when he punched them. A explosion obscured the screen and when it cleared the human was leaning over the side of a cliff, holding on to the krogan, who in turn was holding onto the asari. A flying platform appeared on which a multi-armed, squid faced clockwork geth stood. It raised a glowing hand and spoke "Now, Commander Buckaroo, you and you're pesky Galactic Adventures will no longer be a thorn in the side of I, Regent!" It fired the glowing blob and the show cut to black.

As the voice over announcer told everybody that they could catch the exiting next part of "Commander Buckaroo and the Galactic adventures" next week, Kelly thought three things; One, she much preferred the old Battle Crisis: Star Hawks cartoon (the fact that the main character was a kick ass green eyed, red headed girl had nothing to do with it, of course) two, she couldn't believe that anybody would use a literal cliffhanger even on a kid's show in this day and three that she really, really had to show this to Shepard.

"I'm sorry Grunt, there's nothing I can do. Maybe you could watch it again. Or maybe watch some of the other episodes?"

"I've already watched it four times. and I've seen all the episodes." grumbled Grunt.

"Maybe you should go on the extranet, find other fans?" Kelly reasoned that the worst he could do would be getting banned from forums.

"That sounds... good"

The door opened and Shepard walked in, Kelly noticed that he had his hand low, near his pistol. He looked to her and she gave a quick nod to indicate that she was fine.

"It's okay, Commander. Grunt, show Shepard what you where watching"

Grunt was more then happy to and the show started from the beginning. Shepard's face darkened as he saw the characters and listened to the voice over describing them. He gritted his teeth at Commander Buckaroo but the final straw was the appearance of Regent. Not quite the reaction Kelly was expecting.

"Kelly, find out who makes that abomination and then get me my goddamn lawyers. No! Just find out who made it. I'll deal with them personally!" spat Shepard as he stomped out of the room.

Kelly walked to the door"I'm sorry, Grunt but you may have to wait a bit longer for the next episode." she said as she exited.

The anguished "Noooooo" reverberated around the entire ship.


End file.
